This invention relates to a telecommunications network management and control apparatus herein referred to as a Network Dial Access Controller (NDAC). In particular, it relates to a control apparatus for the selective diversion, routing and administration of originating facsimile calls to a common carrier's data transmission network, or what is referred to as a private network.
The CCITT/ITU X.39 facsimile transmission standard (X.39 protocol), as well as related standards, have a number of restrictive access characteristics. The present invention is capable of addressing these characteristics while essentially remaining in keeping with the appropriate standards.
Facsimile machines have a number of built-in time-out instructions designed to compensate for a variety of potential problems associated with the public telephone network. For example, a time-out function causes the originating facsimile machine to disconnect from the telephone network if it does not establish a successful connection with the destination facsimile machine within a fixed time period (typically between 30 seconds and 50 seconds). However, the call set-up process of the X.39 protocol itself may often exceed this time-out period, thus causing the originating facsimile machine to disconnect the call attempt before a connection is established. It is therefore advantageous to interpose a control apparatus between the originating and destination facsimile machine, or machines, to control the selective diversion, routing and administration of the outgoing call to, for example, a call store and forward facility.
It would also be advantageous for a service provider to be able to remotely test, interrogate, configure, program, or shut down the control apparatus for numerous reasons, such as to update routing tables, modify a user's options, update operating software, test and verify the apparatus, or disconnect the service. One type of the traditional control apparatus, known as a call diverter, has limited remote programming capability when a call is initiated by a remote programming device and there are presently no effective means to accomplish all of the aforementioned tasks without a technician physically attending at the user's premises. Other problems associated with call diverters are that their routing tables are limited in type and size due to memory constraints and they attempt to route calls to their associated private network even though that network, or a portion thereof, may not be functioning when the attempt is made.
The control apparatus of the present invention is attached between the calling device (usually a CCITT Group III facsimile machine or a personal computer equipped with a facsimile modem) and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). In particular, the control apparatus automatically controls the user's access to the private network and maintains statistics which assist the service provider to plan and optimize his network. Once in place it provides the following capabilities: (i) automatic network routing without user prompting; (ii) automatic determination of the initial time-out parameter (T1) characteristics of the attached originating facsimile machine; (iii) maintenance of configurable routing tables in a compressed format; (iv) implementation of a call home feature whereby the apparatus may initiate a call to an associated Uploading/Downloading Computer (UDC) and its associated NDAC management software, which together form an NDAC Management System (NMS) used for maintenance or instructions; (v) remote testing, interrogation, configuration, programming, temporary and permanent shut down of the apparatus initiated by the NDAC Management System (NMS); and (vi) tracking the condition of the associated private network and routing of the call.
In addition, other enhancements provided by the present apparatus include: (i) gathering of specified sets of statistics depicting the user's calling patterns (for subsequent downloading to the NMS; (ii) interface capability to third-party network equipment via configurable Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) or other signalling techniques; (iii) local programming capabilities via an attached portable computer; and (iv) when connected to appropriately configured third-party network equipment, the control apparatus is capable of providing the following: (a) An indication of the integrity of the instructional data transmitted between it and the private network; (b) automatic forwarding of the user's User Identification Number (UID); (c) automatic forwarding of the user's Personal Identification Number (PIN); and (d) instructions to network equipment via a central node as to the type of service requested by the user (e.g. direct transmission in real-time, departmental billing, "broadcast" service, store-and-forward service, etc.).